


Photobomb

by Kaoru_chibimaster



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: FFXV kinkmeme, Feels, Gen, Photobomb, Post Game, non explicit prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 10:52:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11507898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoru_chibimaster/pseuds/Kaoru_chibimaster
Summary: When Prompto searched through his camera with the intent of reliving some old memories, he'd come across something he never expected to see.





	Photobomb

**Author's Note:**

> I told myself this wouldn’t be a sad-feels-on-ferris-wheels sort of thing, but look how that turned out.  
> Anyway, this is a fill for [this](https://ffxv-kinkmeme.dreamwidth.org/3892.html?thread=5704244#cmt5704244) prompt.

The first time Prompto noticed it, he’d been aimlessly flipping through his photos on a trip down memory lane. Having just finished a run for Cindy into the ruins of Insomnia for more crown-city made car parts, he’d found himself with nothing to do once he got back. Cindy kept telling him she had the actual mechanics covered, and Cid was so far from in the mood for Prompto’s bored antics that he was practically halfway to Accordo. Not literally, of course, considering the old man was far more content napping in the garage while the sound of Cindy’s tinkering filled the background in a droning ambience. Letting the sound of wrenches and metal lull Prompto into a sense of distant calm, he went and found himself a chair to plop into, pulling out his camera to occupy himself with before he, too, ended up falling asleep.

Scratching absently at his goatee, he smiled to himself at the stream of memories preserved in his camera’s storage chip. The photo of the four friends posed before the Regalia just after it was fixed, the slew of goofy pics Prompto had taken during battle where at least one of the group had managed to embarrass himself in each one, the group pictures taken during their stay in Caem where Iris’ fists didn’t carry the scars of years of battle and Talcott’s young face was still mostly innocent of the world, the landscaped photos of mystical dungeons the group had found themselves wandering as they traversed the world… Eventually, Prompto found himself happening upon more recent pictures. One he’d taken of a bearded Noctis, bags under the king’s eyes as he pushed himself to continue on to his final battle. One last picture of the group all together, straining to smile for the camera despite the dire situation they’d found themselves in. Sighing, Prompto stared morosely at that picture. He’d stopped using his camera once they’d reached the citadel, having been too wrapped up in staying alive while his very first best friend…decidedly did not. He’d kept on trucking though. He’d made a promise to walk tall for his king, and no way was he going to break that promise.

He clicked over to the next picture.

Ah, here were some new ones. A picture of a particularly beautiful sunrise he'd caught one morning in Duscae. A view of the coast as he rode through Galdin. And the most recent pictures he’d taken in Insomnia. Mostly they were for his own benefit, as they’d have meant little in another’s hands. The reconstruction Insomnia was undergoing was slow, but it was going. No one needed pictures of the rubble it had been reduced to in the aftermath of the invasion. No one needed reminders of how they lost their homes, their lives, their everything… Prompto wanted those reminders, though. He wanted to remember how the old strip he and Noct used to hang out on looked, back when he’d visit his best friend at the sushi joint he worked at just before they’d hit the arcade. He wanted to remember the street he lived on as a child when he first met Tiny— _Pryna_ , and was subsequently encouraged by Lady Luna to become friends with Noctis. He wanted to remember the side streets they walked on when their high school day was over and they wanted to escape public notice. All of these were still precious memories to Prompto, even if all there was left to represent them were a bunch of photos of destroyed buildings and ripped up asphalt.

He’d even taken a picture of the citadel, having remembered the first time he walked up those steps, Cor the Immortal just a few paces behind him, informing him of the importance of just what becoming a crownsguard meant. Though the steps in the picture were a far cry from the pristine marble they used to be, they sent a wave of nostalgia through him. He could just see it perfectly, how Noctis would stand before them, clean shaven and dressed in his wedding suit…

Wait…

Prompto blinked, rubbed his eyes, and then blinked again. He stared owlishly at the photo, sure he was imagining things. Clicking past the photo, to a different one capturing the construction underway on the upper portion of the building, he clicked back, figuring that his rose-tinted glasses were having a bit too much of an effect on him. Nope. He wasn’t seeing things. There stood Noctis, just in front of the citadel steps, smiling that crooked smile of his at the camera as one hand popped the collar of his pristine suit, the other hooked into a pants pocket. A typical “Noctis” pose, when he wasn’t being silly.

Prompto wasn’t entirely sure what sound he made, but it sent Cindy bustling over to him, wondering what the ruckus was.

“Prompto, you alright over there? Ya sound like a broken fan belt…”

Prompto shot out of his chair as Cindy approached, nearly shoving the camera into her face. She backed up a bit to avoid being hit in the nose, raising a surprised eyebrow at the blond man. He pulled the camera back slightly, feeling a bit guilty over nearly whacking her in the face with it in his excitement, but still encouraged her to keep her eyes on the photo instead of staring at him like he was insane.

Who knew, maybe he was…

“Cindy, tell me I’m not going crazy!” he shouted. Cid snorted in his sleep and shifted in his chair at all of the noise, but didn’t wake.

“At the rate yer goin’, I’d be inclined otherwise,” she responded. Prompto had to fight the exasperated sigh attempting to claw its way out of his throat. Instead he pushed the camera further in her face. He was quite lucky she was too confused with his behavior to pay it much mind, or he’d have earned himself a smack on the head with a wrench.

“Just look! Look at the camera!”

Cindy’s brow furrowed, but she did as he told. Her green eyes scanned over the picture, almost dismissively, until they widened. She blinked repeatedly, utterly shocked, at the blurry, translucent image of the late King of Lucis standing in front of the citadel steps as if he was taking a casual photo. Not too dissimilar from the earlier pictures of Noctis towards the beginning of the camera’s album. Except, well, Noctis wasn’t halfway see through in those pictures.

“Prompto?” Cindy finally said. He swallowed, his mouth dry as he answered.

“Yeah?”

“I think you got’cherself a ghost.”

That’s what he thought.

-o-

The second time Prompto noticed it, he’d been looking through Gladio’s wedding photos. He’d been asked to frame the best ones for the newlywed couple while they were on their honeymoon. He’d been happy to do it, glad that they’d gotten the chance to marry in the first place after having been so unsure before if there would even be a wedding. Their wedding photos had been rather typical, what with the happy couple standing together arm-in-arm in some and circled by friends in others, all surrounded by the street decorations draped over Lestallum’s awnings. There were a few goofy ones, with Prompto and Ignis posing dramatically with Gladio by the cake, Gladio’s new wife and her sister making silly faces in front of the alter, and the couple mashing food into each other’s mouths.

And then there was the very odd one out.

Prompto stared, perplexed, as a particularly normal picture of he, Gladio, Gladio’s wife, Ignis and Iris was marred slightly by the blurry, translucent figures of Noctis, Lady Luna and even King Regis and Clarus. Where Gladio’s friends and family stood off to his left, to his right, a pale hand, the hand of his very-much-not-alive-father was clasped on Gladio’s shoulder. The man himself looked quite proud in fact. Beside him stood King Regis, looking as kind and regal as Prompto remembered when he had first met him. Just before him stood Noctis, again clean-shaven and sharply dressed, grinning playfully as he held two raised fingers behind Gladio’s head. And just beside him stood Lady Luna, her hair loose and her hand held to her mouth, barely hiding an amused smile. It was completely surreal.

When Gladio had returned from his honeymoon, Prompto had the framed pictures ready and gift-wrapped for him. As well as the… _other_ photo.

Which had left Gladio staring, disgruntled, at it for a few minutes.

“That’s a sick joke, Prompto,” he’d said after a couple beats of silence. Frankly, Prompto was disgusted that Gladio would even consider the idea that he might doctor a photo to insert their dead friends/family into it.

“Dude, seriously? You think I’d do that? Hell, you think I’d be _able_ to do that?” After all, there were no such photos of Noctis and Lady Luna while alive, and Prompto had certainly never seen any with the former King and his Shield in the poses they appeared in. Thus no way he would have been able to photoshop anything of the sort into that picture. He knew Gladio knew this too, and was only finding an excuse to believe his wedding wasn’t visited by the ghosts of his father, King, best friend and best friend’s former fiancé. All of whom were deceased.

“Here,” Prompto pulled out his camera and quickly found the picture he’d shown to Cindy a few weeks prior. He hadn’t brought it up with Gladio or Ignis before. He doubted they’d react well to it. “Check this one out.”

This time, he calmly handed the camera over to Gladio. Having spent the better part of the last few weeks staring at it, he was mostly unaffected by it now. Gladio took the camera, sending Prompto a skeptical glance before examining the picture. His frown deepened.

“…This is for real?”

“Real as ever, man.” There’d been no one in front of those steps when Prompto took that picture. He’d swear on a damn Cosmogony volume if that was what it took.

Gladio sighed, lowering the camera. His eyes slid over to the wedding picture again, sliding over every detail. The corner of his mouth twitched, though Prompto wasn’t sure with what emotion.

“Shit, Prompto. I don’t even know what to say,” he finally admitted, his expression lightening into something more neutral. Prompto only shrugged.

“Think we should tell Iggy?” he asked. Gladio mirrored the shrug.

“I guess? I mean, it’s not like he’d be able to see it. But we shouldn’t leave him out of the loop.”

Then Prompto supposed he ought to tell Ignis the next day, whenever he might have the free time. Starting his own business had been quite time consuming after all, and though Ignis clearly did not regret being Gladio’s best man, it had set him back in terms of progress and paperwork. This would be quite the bomb to drop, especially now. Prompto felt guilty, knowing how Ignis might react to being told his charge and closest friend since he was six was suddenly a ghost hanging around Lucis. Photobombing Prompto.

Unbelievable. Even in death, Noct could be a little shit. The thought made Prompto want to smile, even in the face of the impending nuclear reaction that could possibly be Ignis tomorrow.

Gladio grunted, picking up the picture again and staring at it a bit longer. There was something in his eyes…longing, it looked like. More than likely, he wanted his father to actually be there. He wanted all of them to be. Prompto could agree. What wouldn’t he give to have them all back, standing in that photo for real as they congratulated Gladio on settling down. Seeing them standing there, completely out of reach, would make anyone long for their presence to be tangible. Surprisingly, however, Gladio suddenly snorted. He was grinning. Prompto, shocked, raised an eyebrow at the sudden cheer.

“Can’t believe it. That punk haunts my wedding and the first thing he does is give me bunny ears.”


End file.
